Joachim Müller-Jung in Frankfurter Allgemeines Zeitung (FAZ) this week deals with the ethic implications of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, describing that a huge number of tests based on fetal DNA entering the mother’s blood stream is ready to enter the market. His recommendation is to start an immediate discussion about which tests should be applied and which ones should not.

Ulrich Bahnsen in Die ZEIT interviews Norbert Donner-Banzhoff, Professor at the University of Marburg’s Department of General Practice, Preventive and Rehabilitative Medicine. Donner-Banzhoff conducted a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal CMAJ investigating the influence of pharmaceutical advertising on the drug recommendations made in articles in 11 German journals that focus on medical education. Donner-Banzhoff and his team come to the conclusion that journals financed by advertisement from the pharma industry and given away for free almost exclusively recommended the use of specified drugs, whereas journals financed entirely with subscription fees tended to recommend against the use of the same drugs. In the interview, Donner-Banzhoff suggests that a lot of articles published in the free journals have been written by ghost writers and/or members of the pharmaceutical industry.  » Read more...

Two decades ago, it was discovered by the founders of German biotech company Probiodrug that the so-called amyloid beta peptides (Aβ) forming the notorious plaques in the brain of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) patients are not a homogeneous species. While it was known that there are variants in length (from 36 to 43 amino acids), the Probiodrug researchers discovered that there also are pyroglutamated variants (pGlu-Aβ) of the peptides. However, little was known about their origin and biological role. This has changed significantly over the last years, and Probiodrug has pioneered this research.

At this year’s 10th International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases (AD/PD 2011), taking place in Barcelona/Spain from March 9 to 13, more than two dozen posters and presentations provide further insights into the mechanisms and consequences of pGlu-Aβ formation, and there is overwhelming evidence that pGlu-Aβ is key to understanding Alzheimer’s Disease and to developing novel treatments. Abstracts can be found here.  » Read more...

In Germany, newpapers are widely reporting about a recent paper by a team of researchers led by  Thomas Bayer from Ernst-August University Goettingen, Germany, in which the team reports about an approach able to halt the progress of Alzheimer’s disease in mice.

For a long time, researchers have tried to stop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by either dissolving the plaques found in the brains of AD patients or by trying to get rid of the so-called Abeta peptide that is believed to aggregate to plaques. However, none of these approaches has been successful so far.  » Read more...

Probiodrug (Halle, Germany) has appointed Dr Kumar Srinivasan, previously Vice President, Global Business Development at Wyeth, to Chief Business Officer. Wyeth was acquired by Pfizer in 2009. Probiodrug has a focus on neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s disease. In this indication, the company pursues a novel target and pathway and is preparing for the start of clinical development of one of its lead candidates, a small molecule inhibitor of the enzyme glutaminyl cyclase (QC). Kumar Srinivasan, MBA, has a background as research chemist and is an experienced pharma / biotech dealmaker. He will be responsible for Probiodrug’s global business development activities and will be based in Philadelphia, PA. The full press release can be found here.